Stricter Guidelines for Coronavirus Vaccine Potentially Nixed
By Aaron Silverman ‘21
President Trump this week told reporters in a White House press briefing that he may not approve proposed FDA guidelines regarding a potential Covid-19 vaccine, possibly undermining an already shrinking public confidence in a vaccine and adding yet another wrinkle to the politically volatile Coronavirus vaccine push.
This latest move comes after a litany of recent vaccine news headlines. Earlier this month, nine leading pharamaceutical companies, among them big names such as Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson, signed a pledge averring that they were committed above all else to ensuring the efficacy and safety of tentative vaccines amid an urgent push for vaccine development. They pledged that they would not submit any vaccines to the Food and Drug Adminsitration until the vaccine’s safety and efficacy had been demonstrated by large clinical trials.
This pledge came partly in repsonse to polls and surveys showing that the number of Americans who say they are willing to take a coronavirus vaccine is dwindling. A survey published last week by the Pew Research Center shows that 51% of Americans say they are willing to take a Covid-19 vaccine, down from 72% in May. The American public may fear that a potential vaccine’s safety and effectiveness may be compromised by a political drive for rapid vaccine development. President Trump has said to expect a vaccine as early as October.
The FDA recently planned to issue tougher guidelines that would make the process of vaccine approval more rigorous and time-consuming. It was in response to these guidelines that President Trump told reporters this week that he “may or may not” approve the implementation of these new guidelines, and that it “sounds like a political move.”
Critics contend that the president wants as early of a vaccine release as possible to help him politically amid the backdrop of the looming presidential election. The same day as the president’s remarks, Democrats in Congress grilled government scientists and physicians, among them Dr. Anthony Fauci. Democrats had demanded last month that Fauci and others testify in Congress, with Senator Chuck Schumer from New York saying that, “it is painfully clear that the Trump administration won’t stop the political interference which is threatening our response to this pandemic and putting lives in jeopardy on its own, so it is up to Congress to act.” Republicans, for their part, were equally upset at what they viewed as their opponents’ attempts to delay the release of a vaccine for political gain.
The acrimony surrounding the vaccine development effort is a clear sign that the vaccine has become a political tool that the two parties want to use to their advantage in the upcoming election. President Trump’s FDA directives may undermine public trust in the vaccine and fuel criticism that it is being rushed out prematurely due to political motives.
